LeBron's last 39 games

In his past six games he's on another streak similar to the 30+ points, 60% streak he had earlier in the season.

35.8 MPG 30.0 PPG 6.7 TRB 7.2 APG 1.8 STL 1.3 BLK 3.0 TOV .758 TS%

LeBron, for nearly half the season, is putting up an almost unprecedented combination of volume scoring and efficiency. Only Adrian Dantley and Charles Barkley have scored 27+ points with .66 TS%+ (arbitrary numbers but whatevs) over an entire season.

One is known as one of the biggest ball stoppers in NBA history and the other was a PF (well LeBron kinda is too but he's also a PG and SF rolled into one).

If he turns it up even further in the playoffs the Heat might go 16-0.

This chart from Kirk Goldsberry really tells the story in my opinion. He's focused his game on certain spots of the floor and playing with a live dribble far more than he used to. Everything's on the left side of the floor because that's where he's most comfortable. And then he spots up on the right wing or in either corner (Shooting nearly 50% on corner 3s. And 45% from that right wing. That's Ray Allen territory.) I really think his improved efficiency is related to mastering a few spots on the floor and focusing solely on that.

Also, under appreciated I think is the effect Shane Battier and Ray Allen have had on LeBron. LeBron's always been a basketball geek and more receptive to analytics than most NBA stars. I really think Battier's tendency to always play the percentages has rubbed off on LeBron some. And I have no basis for this, but I think practicing with Ray has upped LeBron's three point shot. Though that may be a total coincidence, I really have no idea. I do know that Ray's constant quest for the 50/40/90 has intrigued LeBron. So maybe there is something to it.

quote:Lebron's progression in terms of shot selection since his Cleveland days was amazing.

Yeah, it's from the same article. That's the other aspect of this. His increased 3pt shooting is that a much larger portion are now spot ups. He's 5th in the league in spot up shooting scoring 1.34 points per possession, and he's shooting 46% on spot up 3s. That's roughly equal or better than what Durant shoots on spot up, though in less attempts (Durant scores 1.26 ppp and shoots 49% from 3). He's cut out a lot of off the dribble threes, though he still takes a decent amount of isolation threes.

quote:They had a dude nicknamed the Big O who averaged a TRIPLE DOUBLE for an entire season

There's a such thing as context, and the context is the number of possessions in a game. If LeBron played on a team that averaged roughly 105+ possessions per game, he'd average over a triple double for a season too. Unfortunately for his raw averages, he only plays roughly 93.

quote:There's a such thing as context, and the context is the number of possessions in a game. If LeBron played on a team that averaged roughly 105+ possessions per game, he'd average over a triple double for a season too. Unfortunately for his raw averages, he only plays roughly 93

re: LeBron's last 39 games (Posted on 4/7/13 at 12:55 pm to theGarnetWay)

It is arbitrary but it's a large enough sample size that adding one game doesn't affect it much (though his ts% would drop below .66). FWIW the 40th game was a loss vs Portland in which he had one of his worst shooting/scoring performances of the season with 15 points on 6/16 shooting.

quote:There's a such thing as context, and the context is the number of possessions in a game. If LeBron played on a team that averaged roughly 105+ possessions per game, he'd average over a triple double for a season too. Unfortunately for his raw averages, he only plays roughly 93.

So ummm....how does a 10% increase in possessions lead to a guaranteed 30% increase in assists AND rebounds?

quote:So ummm....how does a 10% increase in possessions lead to a guaranteed 30% increase in assists AND rebounds?

Facts...

Because if you weren't an idiot you'd know that rebounds are available on both offense and defense. Thus, he'd have roughly 30 more opportunities to grab 2 rebounds. As for the assists, just on the possessions alone it'd bump him up to roughly 8.5-9. At that point, he'd assist hunt a bit to get it because, if he had an opportunity to achieve that goal, he'd be interested in trying. Also, we could take into account the lack of defense being attempted by the majority of the league when Oscar played. Finally, my possessions estimate was conservative, other people believe there could have been 20-25 more possessions per team then, but we'll never know because they didn't record offensive rebounds or turnovers. If that's true, then the league would have been mostly fast breaks, and considering LeBron's ability in the open court against a transitioning defense, I feel pretty confident with my original assessment that, if LeBron played in Oscar's day, he'd average a triple double. I'll also contend that, if Oscar played in today's game, he wouldn't average a triple double.